Hi there, I'm in the making of a game and everything goes great - everything but the controls. I'm kind of a perfectionist and can easily get obsessed with things and my current obsession are the game controls. It seems I can not get them working perfectly for all possible input vectors and thus I need your help. Which game control concepts do you love? Which do you hate? (I guess the fake D-Pad would be one of the most hated input concepts on the iOS.) In your opinion, which games implement perfect (or nearly perfect) input schemes that are just fun to use or (in the best case) you forget the input completely and just focus on the game? I need inspiration! Leon /edit: I should mention which kind of game I'm making. It's a 2D platform like game where you control a player character who can move up, left, right and down, etc. (just like Mario). So I probably won't need perfect 3D controls. Though out of curiosity I'm very interested in them, too
I'm not sure if you have played Pizza Boy before (it's on the iphone), those controls are superb. Theres a slider for going left and right on the left hand side and on the right hand side there are buttons for jumping and shooting. I normally hate the fake d-pads because they never really work and feel fiddly, but I wouldn't mind using one if they worked responsively. To me Tilt to control is usually a big no-no. Only some games manage to pull it off so you can head away from that (and you probably don't need tilt controls for a mario clone anyway)
I guess you should ask that in the dev forums, as they know the tweaks. And as stupid as it sounds, there are no `bad control schemes´, just bad implementation in the wrong context. Swipe and Accel could work as well in a J&R as a D-Pad and Tilt or Dual Stick. It all just all about how you make it fit in. I have no objection to d-pad but most of the times the buttons are place not ergonomically. being able to adjust them in size and position as in e.g. iTraceur is a great idea.
I rather like to ask the players as they are the guys who have to live with my bad/good design choices
Doodle Jump, MC2:BP (surprisingly, but the controls are great!), Labyrinth 2, Super QuickHook, etc. For some of the games, mastering the controls is challenging, which makes it fun. You could always include multiple control options.
I agree a slider would work well. That was the only good thing about Assassins Creed 2 on idevices. Also Soosiz has simple and good controls.
pizza boy's controls were perfect.. Chaos Rings "anywhere" joystick was pretty nice also. to me, those games had the best controls
I personally don't like on screen controls, I really prefer the tap to move kid of setups. But since you are making a 2d platformer I would recommend taking a look at mirrors edge, so far I think its some of the most intuitive controls for an iPhone game.
The problem with opinion questions and asking the general populace is, everyone has their own opinion. Personally I dislike the swipe movements as they make my finger take up more of the screen than a simple direction pad would. However, Dpads need to be responsive and not very particular about the tappable area. I always find myself 'missing' the Dpad on Final Fantasy I and that annoys me.
I generally dislike onscreen dpads AKA virtual sticks, but sometimes they're necessary. And to be fair, sometimes they do work well, i.e. many dual stick shooters. Some types of iOS controls I like: - Relative touch controls like those in many SHMUPS (i.e. DoDonPachi, Super Laser etc.), and Fargoal - Gyro controls when they fit the gameplay (i.e. the amazing "UFO On Tape") - Tap and drag controls in strategy/defense games - Tilt controls when done well, like some racing games, Rolando, Doodle Jump etc. - Creative touch controls like those in the Hook Champ series Basically the best controls are those that adapt to the platform, as opposed to trying to force the platform to perform like it has physical controls (i.e. dpad). If I find myself wishing for a real gamepad, then the controls aren't very good.
